A letter from Ng Wei Aik asking the Penang Municipal Council (MPPP) to prohibit three Malay traders from running their business at the Penang Road Ramadan bazaar has landed the Komtar (DAP) assemblyperson in the soup.

Dated Aug 11, the letter requested MPPP director (licence division) Rafiah Mohd Radzi to prohibit Aminul Haque Nasir Ahmad, Sharu Banu Abdul Latiff and Jainol Abidin Mydin from trading at the Ramadan bazaar.

According to Ng ( right ), who is also Komtar restoration committee chairperson, NONE the trio "attacked, insulted and threw slippers" at him and other MPPP councillors while they were taking action against several illegal hawkers along Penang Road on Sept 5 last year.

The councillors were Tay Leong Seng, Lim Siew Khim, Harvinder Singh and Ong Ah Teong.

"As their action showed total disrespect for the MPPP and its councillors, I appealed that the three be prohibited from directly conducting their businesses at the Ramadan bazaar on Penang Road," Ng said in his letter.

"I hope you can defend the dignity of the MPPP and its councillors by taking stern action against the three," he added.

Copies of the letter were released by the vocal Komtar Merchants Association today, which described the matter as a form of p ersecution against Malay traders.

Its vice-chairperson Mohamad Ghani Abdul Jiman had lodged a police report today, saying Ng had bad intentions towards Muslims and Malays by sending in the letter.

He had earlier lodged another police report against the state government for accusing him of not paying the rental for the Ramadan bazaar space at Komtar, even though he had collected the fees from the traders.

"They denied they were oppressing the Malays and asked me to speak NONE the truth. But the truth is Ng has to resign for openly playing with racial sentiments," Ghani ( right ) told a press conference today.

"If this letter is false, please go and make a police report that I produced my own letter," he added.

'Harbouring revenge'

Ghani also called on Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng to resign, saying he was "not qualified" to run the state, and accused Ng of not helping the Malay traders.

"Does he (Ng) want us to worship him? Muslims do not worship anyone. If he wants, ask him to die first," he said angrily.

"I hope the Malays will not be cheated. They (DAP) are very bad, there is no other place where only Malay stalls are demolished.

"If we give them (Pakatan Rakyat) another term to run this state, Malays will be finished," Ghani said, adding that all his criticisms of the state government were true because it was remaining silent.

Lim had on several occasions denied that the state government was persecuting illegal hawkers from the Malay community, saying only 18 percent of their stalls were demolished while the rest of the stalls belonged to other communities.

Non-politician playing politics

Ng when contacted denied that the issue had anything to do with race but said he had an obligation to defend the dignity of the MPPP.

He said Ghani was using the issue to gain "political mileage" even though he was not a politician.

"He had the letter in his possession since Aug 14, so why does he only reveal it now? I believe he has a hidden agenda," he said.

The three traders who abused and attacked the MPPP councillors, Ng said, had apologised through Utusan Malaysia on Aug 14.

"Although they did not apologise directly to us, we accepted their apology. We are not pursuing the matter anymore, for we have left it to MPPP to settle it," he added.